Winning millions of dollars in the Florida Lottery should have been the best thing that ever happened to Abraham Shakespeare.
But with his newfound wealth in 2006 — US$17 million in a lump sum payment — came a string of hangers-on who constantly hit him up for money. Then, nine months ago, he vanished.
Friends and family hoped he was on a beach somewhere in the Caribbean. But on Friday, detectives confirmed that a body buried under a concrete slab in a rural backyard was his.
The home Shakespeare was found behind belongs to the boyfriend of a woman who befriended him in 2007. Authorities believe he was murdered and the woman may know something about it, but they do not yet know how he died and have not arrested anyone.
Shakespeare’s brother, Robert Brown, said on Friday that Shakespeare often wished he had never bought the winning ticket.
“‘I’d have been better off broke.’ He said that to me all the time,” Brown said.
Hillsborough County sheriff’s detectives used fingerprints to identify Shakespeare’s body, which they found covered by a concrete slab.
Before 2006, Shakespeare was an assistant truck driver who lived with his mother. He was barely literate and had a criminal record.
After he won the lottery, he bought a US$1 million home and was extremely generous to others.
“He really didn’t understand it at all,” said Samuel Jones, a friend since childhood. “It was moving so fast. It changed his life in a bad way.”
Jones said Abraham would tell him: “I thought all these people were my friends, but then I realized all they want is just money.”
Among those new friends was Dorice Donegan “DeeDee” Moore. She told him she was interested in writing a book about his life, but officials said she was interested in his money.
Moore, whose known telephone numbers were all disconnected on Friday, became something of a financial adviser to Shakespeare. Property records show her company, American Medical Professionals, bought his home for US$655,000 a year ago. Not long afterward, detectives said, she helped him open a company and gave herself the ability to sign for money.
She withdrew US$1 million and later told detectives Shakespeare gave her the cash as a gift. She bought a Hummer, a Corvette and a truck, and went on vacation.
“DeeDee Moore is a con artist,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in a news release earlier this month. “DeeDee Moore has cheated Abraham Shakespeare out of his money, and possibly his life.”
A tip led detectives to Shakespeare’s grave site this week, behind a home owned by 26-year-old Shar Krasniqi, identified by Judd as Moore’s boyfriend.
Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday vowed that those behind bogus flood control projects would be arrested before Christmas, days after deadly back-to-back typhoons left swathes of the country underwater. Scores of construction firm owners, government officials and lawmakers — including Marcos’ cousin congressman — have been accused of pocketing funds for substandard or so-called “ghost” infrastructure projects. The Philippine Department of Finance has estimated the nation’s economy lost up to 118.5 billion pesos (US$2 billion) since 2023 due to corruption in flood control projects. Criminal cases against most of the people implicated are nearly complete, Marcos told reporters. “We don’t file cases for
Ecuadorans are today to vote on whether to allow the return of foreign military bases and the drafting of a new constitution that could give the country’s president more power. Voters are to decide on the presence of foreign military bases, which have been banned on Ecuadoran soil since 2008. A “yes” vote would likely bring the return of the US military to the Manta air base on the Pacific coast — once a hub for US anti-drug operations. Other questions concern ending public funding for political parties, reducing the number of lawmakers and creating an elected body that would
‘ATTACK ON CIVILIZATION’: The culture ministry released drawings of six missing statues representing the Roman goddess of Venus, the tallest of which was 40cm Investigators believe that the theft of several ancient statues dating back to the Roman era from Syria’s national museum was likely the work of an individual, not an organized gang, officials said on Wednesday. The National Museum of Damascus was closed after the heist was discovered early on Monday. The museum had reopened in January as the country recovers from a 14-year civil war and the fall of the 54-year al-Assad dynasty last year. On Wednesday, a security vehicle was parked outside the main gate of the museum in central Damascus while security guards stood nearby. People were not allowed in because
A feud has broken out between the top leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party on whether to maintain close ties with Russia. The AfD leader Alice Weidel this week slammed planned visits to Russia by some party lawmakers, while coleader Tino Chrupalla voiced a defense of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The unusual split comes at a time when mainstream politicians have accused the anti-immigration AfD of acting as stooges for the Kremlin and even spying for Russia. The row has also erupted in a year in which the AfD is flying high, often polling above the record 20 percent it
RSS